Storyopolis

The company is NOT closed! They just no longer have a store-​front. They take online orders and phone orders (same phone number as before)!! They’re awesome and make exquisite baskets.

One star for the fact that they are closed down but haven’t updated their website to say so. Waste of a trip with my kid.

After speaking with other moms on the largest facebook group of moms in the city, I found that Storyopolis ALWAYS opens late. So should you plan to go be sure to arrive late or be prepared to wait!

I love this store. Incredible selection of books and toys. Also, without a doubt, they make the best gift baskets in the world. Whenever I need to send a baby gift, my first call is to Storyopolis. I can’t even begin to tell you how great this place has made me look over the years with family, friends, colleagues, and clients. They put such care and detail into every basket they make.
What makes this place so special though, is the owner, Lori. Her knowledge and attention to detail is remarkable. She’s incredibly helpful, couldn’t be more kind or sweet.
There’s no need to go to any other toy store or book store, when there’s a place as wonderful as Storyopolis.

This is how the other half’s kids live, folks. Super adorable. Great stuff. I mean, really, really great stuff. It may be listed as a bookstore on Unilocal,but it’s more like a mini FAO Schwarz.
I’m a super-​snob about books. I read to my son every night while he was growing up (and while he was in my stomach!), plus I’m a former English professor… AND I hail from Portland, Oregon, home to Powell’s, the greatest bookstore in the world. So when you talk to me about kids and books, I’m automatically going to start rattling off Caldecott Medal titles. (For the unwashed, go here:
)
They’re the only thing I give when my friends have babies. Forget the diaper genie, give me some Madeline and Pepito!
My girlfriend in Orange County adopted a couple of kids from China a year or so back (they weren’t brother and sister but had been in the orphanage together for so long she didn’t want to split them up. She deserves a key to every city in the world, if you ask me.) And when she and the kids popped into my head the other day, I thought, oh my gosh, I wonder if there’s a Caldecott winner with a Chinese theme? Sure enough, the 1990 winner, with a copyright of 1989, «Lon Po Po: A Red-​Riding Hood Story from China» by Ed Young was waiting for me to discover it.
I am currently living off of Mulholland and had no idea where I could find a Caldecott on this side of the city. (Encino? Really?) But luckily I found Storyopolis, rang them up, spoke with one very sweet grrrl named Simone and she informed me that they had the book!
You gotta buy something from this store just for the wrap job, though, seriously.

Incredible selection of books, toys, and girl things. Seemed like they had lots of boy items as well, I was just not looking for a boy. I never have time to shop because I am in the medical profession. Just happened to be walking to take care of some administrative work, and decided to walk in the store. I had heard of Storyopolis over the last ten years.
The owner, Lori Abramowitz, was very patient and kind. She said, «May I help you…». I said, «I am just browsing.»
Normally, I never shop because I feel that it is not important to shop anymore. But, when I started to look at their selection of toys, books, and other imagination toys, I felt like whomever was the shopper for the store truly knew what children of various ages enjoy.
My niece is deaf. She has cochlear implants and is able to hear enough to learn to read and write. But, she tends to gravitate toward imaginative play and toys that engage her eye-​hand coordination.
Lori was absolutely lovely, intelligent, and creative.
I am so excited for my niece to receive her box full of toys and books and other sweet things that little five year old girls enjoy.
My niece lives in Boston, and Lori gladly said she would mail the things for Elle.
Lori recommended embroidering an item that I bought for Elle. Lori is very creative and fun.
Anyhow, I will be coming to Lori to help me decide on gifts in the future.

This shop is a cool little spot to bring the kids. It’s a little on the bourgeois side, but I’m a fan.

I love independent shops with characters. This charming store has the most helpful and friendly staff who offered numerous gift ideas. They even wrapped everything up in such decorative fashion. It’s easy to miss as you drive by, but it’s definitely worth turning around to find it and going back again and again.

Have been here 2 times now to buy gifts. Helpful staff. Cute stuff.
I will go there again for birthday gifts. They have things there that I don’t see at other shops.

Lovely book and gift store.

My awesome boss just had his second girl today. Since he has all the normal baby stuff, I wanted to get him something that both his 3 year old and his newborn would be able to share. The answer: books.
A friend of mine recommended Storyopolis. I was a little frustrated when I looked at the website (which is why I took away a star) because you can’t actually view their book selection online.
However, when I called the store I talked to Courtney who was very helpful. I walked her through the situation. That I needed two individual gift baskets one for the three year old who loves elephants and one for the newborn who loves ?. She put together two great gift baskets that my boss loved.
I have a few other friends who are expecting right now and I will absolutely go to Storyopolis for presents.

It’s cute. The man who runs this place is really into it and has been around for years. Classic entertainment. No batteries or computer sounds, just imagination.

I keep going back because I WANT to like this place. It’s close by and they have STORY TIME for my little one!!! Unfortunately, I always leave there feeling disappointed. There is a tiny selection of toddler board books and every time I go there, they seem too busy to care and unorganized. Also, the story time is pretty darn boring. PLEASE JAZZ IT UP A BIT!!! At least READ the book with some fun voices or sounds or noises or something! The first time I was there, she tried to stop five minutes early and couldn’t think of another song to sing, even though it’s pretty easy to think up FIVE kid songs as a children’s storyteller! Again, I really WANT to enjoy this place. PLEASE GET IT TOGETHER SO WE CAN COME BACK!!!
Good points: There are some pretty cute puppets and they do wrap gifts super cute:)

A great place and resource for parents! It’s moved around a bit and this new location is smaller then the last 2 however, it’s still a good size. Lots of events and readings for kids. A must for Angeleno kids and parents ;)

amazing books for kids and super awesome staff especially Theresa and Courtney. They were soooo helpful!

For my son’s birthday this past August I promised him a shopping spree at Storyopolis. He was not pleased when we went there and it was closed for the move. We patiently waited and once we found out they were in their new place we zoomed over for some serious spree-​ing.
The first thing you notice about the new place is the art gallery. The art gallery that takes up over half the store. Walking through the gallery you come to the books. The six or seven cases of books. To be fair we were told that more cases would be coming as they finished unpacking but I was wondering where they’d put them. Okay, who needs quantity when you have quality, right? My son does some digging and some asking he comes up with a (one) book.
This is the mighty Storyopolis that I had heard and read so much about? One book? This is the same child who, when we went to Books of Wonder in NYC this past summer, I had to restrain because he found so many books. They had a lot of books for early readers and they had stocked up on their «Twilight» books (yeah, because you can’t find THOSE anyplace else… for your *teenager*) but my ten-​year-​old voracious reader only found one book.
All was not lost, though. I told my son that we would go to Once Upon a Time in Montrose and see if they had something he wanted. Had to restrain him there.

Whoohoo! Storyopolis was featured in the «Favorite Things!» issue of Los Angeles Magazine this month. I feel validated =)

Kids. The final frontier.
I don’t have any that I know about… although there were all those late drunken nights in Hollywood, so ya never know ;) Anyway, I don’t have any youngsters, but I do know one thing about them and that’s the importance of teaching them skills other than «How to mix Mommy a martini» or «Get Mommy the purse that matches her shoes.» Granted those are very important things to send your kids out into the world with, but there are also things like literacy that are pretty damn important too.
With that said, I can’t think of a cooler place to spend the afternoon with a future lil rockstar of society than Storyopolis. Hundreds of interesting books with great stories, awesome pictures and themes upon themes that pretty much blow away the 3 Bears and Humpty Dumpty stuff I grew up with.
It’s awesome and with the live readings for the kids to enjoy, it’s a prefect family affair. If I ever had one of those kid things, I would take the little thing here and get them started early to learn to right and reed guud english well jsut lyke mom :)

A super cool place to come and hang with the kids for a few hours… swing by around 11:30am on the weekdays, and check out «storytime»…on occasion, they have been known to have celebrities such as Jon Favreau who read Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, perform the storytime event. just call ahead, or check the website for details. This place also has some great events on the weekends, which vary from autograph opportunities with big name illustrators such as Clive Barker or Dan Santat, to music time with «The BummKinn Band»
In addition to having a great selection of hard to find children’s books and a helpful and knowledgeable staff, they have a great selection of artwork from various artists and illustrators. They have a large selection in the gallery as well as more pieces that can be special ordered. Some of the artist’s whose work they feature are Tim Burton, Gary Baseman, Dr. Seuss, and Brom.
Also popular are the «Book Baskets», which are wonderful looking and beautifully prepared, usually come with a mix of books and stuffed animals in a large decorative basket. The «Baskets» are available pre-​prepared in different themes or you can have them custom make one with any of the items available in the store. They range in price from about $ 30-​$ 500+ and are a great gift for the right person, they can also be shipped worldwide!

The shop is very inviting with open spaces and comfy furniture so that you can plop down and read to your kids. They have loads of activities and gallery shows, of which they keep you posted if you join their email list. The recommendations from the staff, of more obscure titles, have been big hits as gifts. They put together gorgeous, custom «book bushels» for your budget. The location is convenient and parking is usually not a problem.
All those nice things said, I must also report that I am very put off by the cashiers. Once, I can brush off. Twice, I start to get annoyed. But three transactions without any dialogue or eye contact from the person wringing up an $ 80 sale and I must say «So long Storyopolis. I can get any of this stuff on line my friends.»